The White House says President Barack Obama will visit Kansas City next week.

President Barack Obama delivers his 2013 State of the Union address. (Courtesy; White House Media Affairs)

According to the White House Media Affairs office, “On Tuesday, July 29, President Obama will travel to the Kansas City, MO area. He will remain overnight. On Wednesday, July 30 he will deliver remarks on the economy and return to Washington, D.C. More details about the President visit to the Kansas City area will be made available in the coming days.

The Missouri Hospital Association says if the federal healthcare reform law is defunded, it will have a drastic impact on hospitals in the state and nationwide.

The House has passed a resolution that would fund the government through December but would pull funding from the president’s healthcare reform plan.

Missouri Hospital Association Vice President Dave Dillon says he understands what Republicans in the House want to do, but says they must remember that the program will cut money to hospitals to pay for the uninsured in anticipation that the money they propose pulling would result in more people with insurance.

“All of those payment cuts are going into place no matter whether the federal government defunds the increases in the insured population. So, what we would see would be over the course of ten years $4-billion in cuts without any corresponding increase in the people who can pay for care.”

Dillon says if Republicans really want to stop the plan alternately called “The Affordable Care Act,” or “Obamacare,” it will require some tough sells.

“It would be very difficult to pass a law that would rescind the ability of individuals to stay on their parents plans until they’re 26 years old. It would be very difficult and unpopular to rescind the extension of insurance without regard to preexisting conditions and without lifetime limits. Those things would be absolutely make or break for the insurance industry.”

Senator Claire McCaskill says the Senate will vote to restore funding to federal healthcare reform and send the resolution back to the House. The situation must be resolved by Monday, the first day of the federal fiscal year, or a shutdown to federal programs and services could result.

“If the Syrians felt that they were going to be retaliated against by the administration, they would have never done it to begin with … credibility is like trust. It’s something that’s earned, and once you’ve lost it, you’re in really big trouble. The only way we’re going to get it back is if we have a different president.”

Syria has a week to declare its chemical weapons and must allow international inspections under a plan agreed to by Syria, the U.S. and Russia. Luetkemeyer says without the backing of Congress, the threat of U.S. involvement wasn’t a factor in Syria agreeing to that plan, however.

“Both the House and the Senate were not going to support action. The president was up there rattling his saber by himself. I don’t think that’s what brought the people to the table.”

Luetkemeyer says Russia has used the opportunity to assert themselves as the world leader the U.S. used to be.

“What we have done is to allow the Russians … to now become the world power and be able to make the rules and be able to make the rules and put everybody in their place and restructure the world the way they like to see it done, and I think this is very dangerous. We have abdicated our role as world leader and I think the Syrians and Russians have played this just right.”

President Barack Obama has said the U.S. is “prepared to act” if Syria fails to comply with the peace agreement. Luetkemeyer urges caution.

“Syria’s not Afghanistan. It’s not a third world country. These people have got very modern weapons. This is a Russian-backed country. You go in there without a plan to react to their reaction, you’re asking for trouble.”

Luetkemeyer says he is frustrated Israel was not more involved in the handling of the Syrian situation, saying they have the most to gain or lose and again criticizing the President as having a weak relationship with that nation.

President Barack Obama will be in Kansas City Friday, visiting the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo.

President Barack Obama (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

The White House says in a press release that he “continue to highlight the progress we have made since the beginning of the financial crisis five years ago and the work that lies ahead to continue strengthening our economy and deliver a Better Bargain for the Middle Class.”

No other details are available at this time.

This will be the President’s second visit to Western Missouri this year, after coming to the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg on July 24. (Read the story and hear his speech HERE.)

A key African-American state legislator says she’s satisfied with the State Fair’s handling of a skit mocking the President at a rodeo.

This picture was taken during the controversial routine at a rodeo at the State Fair.

Clown Tuffy Gessling says he put a President Barack Obama mask on another clown posing as a dummy and the crowd was asked if they wanted to see a bull run it down. Gessing has not revealed the name of the second person involved.

In the month since the incident, Gessling has been banned from the Fair and Beatty has met with the Fair Director.

“They took swift action and I think at this point that’s probably all that needs to happen.”

Gessling has said the skit is not new and is not meant to be racist. Beatty is asked if she believes that.

“I’m not sure that it was racially motivated, but it can be seen that way, and I think you have to be careful how you do things because it’s how people perceive it. We want to make sure that the Fair is open to everyone in the state.”

Beatty says she has received calls from people who said they would never go back to the State Fair. After its handling of the incident, she is encouraging them to go back.

Others have told another state lawmaker they won’t go back, but for a different reason.

Two river barge trade groups say barge traffic on the Mississippi River could come to a halt next week if someone doesn’t put more water in the River.

Waterways Council, Inc. is one of two groups that says as early as next week there won’t be enough water in the Mississippi River for the towboats that move barges to operate. It has joined the American Waterways Operators in calling on President Barack Obama to act to avoid an effective closure.

Two unions say after next week, barges on the Mississippi River will have to remain tied up until as late as April unless the Corps of Engineers releases more water into the Missouri River or the Midwest gets lots more rain.

Waterways Council President Mike Toohey says for every 60 days barges stay off the Mississippi, 20,000 jobs and $130 million in wages are threatened and $7 billion in commodities are stranded.

“The inputs to manufacturing such a chemicals, which are a huge component of transportation on the waterways, simply don’t reach the manufacturing facilities … because there really is no other alternative to water transportation. The railroads do not have the water side deliver access that is necessary and we do not have enough trucks to take up the slack.”

Corps of Engineers spokesman Mike Petersen agrees levels are likely to get low enough to keep towboats off the River, but says the Corps can not release more water.

“The Missouri River can’t operate for the support of Mississippi River navigation just by their legal authorities, but the more important question is that if we start releasing water, we’re looking at year one of a drought. We don’t know how many years this drought is going to go on and it’s tough making decisions with water resources in a good year, but we have to keep our eyes on the long-term as far as what we’re going to do with water in any of the Corps reservoirs across the nation if we’re going to be dealing with a persistent drought.”

Toohey says the shut down could last until April unless some significant rain comes to break the drought and raise River levels.

The unions say towboats need a nine-foot draft to operate, and Toohey says very few vessels on the Mississippi can operate with anything more shallow. The unions say the River will be down to 8 feet next week.

Petersen says the Corps is already doing all it can.

“We actually just started releasing some additional water from Carlyle Lake. This would be the second kind of burst of water from Carlyle to support navigation through that reach of River at Thebes (Illinois) … that’ll reach Thebes at about the same time that the forecasts expect us to reach critically low levels.”

Petersen adds, “but ultimately … it’s going to take a whole lot of rain to get us back to normal.”

The Joplin High School Class of 2012 has graduated in a ceremony that took on a double meaning, as President Barack Obama and Governor Jay Nixon helped to celebrate the class and to mark the one year anniversary of the tornado that devastated the community.

The President greeted the 431 members of the Joplin Class of 2012 ahead of the ceremony. Then in his address, he recalled what happened nearly a year earlier only hours after the Class of 2011 graduated.

“The most powerful tornado in six decades tore a path of devastation through Joplin that was nearly a mile wide and thirteen long. In just 32 minutes it took thousands of homes and hundreds businesses and 161 of your neighbors, friends and family.”

Some of those killed were close to the graduates. “It took a classmate, Will Norton, who had just left this auditorium with a diploma in his hand. It took Lantz Hare, who should have received his diploma next year.”

The night was also marked with humor. Class President Chloe Hadley recalled how her senior year had been spent in makeshift facilities, including a local shopping center. “With all confidence I can say I am proud to be a member of the North Park Mall graduates of 2012.”

Superintendent C.J. Huff told the graduates he is proud of them. “If I could have picked a motto for this class, it would simply be this, ‘No excuses.’ Class of 2012, you have shown amazing leadership and character in the face of overwhelming adversity. You have shown the world not only that of which you are capable but also that of which you are made.”